Erik Karlsson's Achilles Laceration

Erik Karlsson suffered a 70 percent laceration of his Achilles' tendon on Wednesday night.  The Senators were playing my favorite hockey team, The Pittsburgh Penguins.  Hockey skates are razor sharp and Matt Cooke's skate caused the laceration.  Matt Cooke has been a subject on controversy but has cleaned up his act recently.  The NHL has determined that the injury was accidental (unlike some of Cooke's actions of the past).  As a podiatrist, I deal with achilles injuries on a regular basis.  Karlsson will likely require surgery or at a bare minimum immobilization and extensive therapy.  Hockey players are not the only ones to suffer injury to the achilles tendon which is the largest tendon (muscle to bone connection) in the body.  However, the Ottawa Senators certainly will miss the services of last year's Norris Trophy winner who was voted the best defenseman in the league.

Pau Gasol's Plantar Fascia Tear

Last week, a doctor confirmed that Pau Gasol tore his plantar fascia and will be out for 6-8 weeks from playing with the Lakers.  Apparently it is also unknown if surgery will be required.  As a podiatrist, this is of course interesting to me.  I see plantar fascia problems several times a day.  What confuses me is the issue of surgery as I have never seen a torn fascia repaired.  Usually, the opposite is true as I have seen chronic inflamed fascia "released" surgically.  In fact, I often perform this procedure myself.

Anyone can suffer from problems with plantar fascia but usually a tear or rupture on a traumatic level is much less common.  The plantar fascia is a band of tissue (or fascia) on the bottom (or plantar) surface of the foot.  It attaches at the bottom of the heel and extends out towards the toes widening before attaching in the ball of the foot.

We commonly see inflammation of the fascia or plantar fasciitis.  This is when the fascia tears on a very small scale repeatedly.  This can be caused by wearing the wrong shoes for two long, going barefoot for to long, or sometimes, but not as common, from trauma (as in Pau Gasol's case).  It is important that if you experience chronic or severe heel pain you are seen by a podiatrist.  We will work to 1) reduce the inflammation and 2) try to prevent the fascia from becoming inflamed again.